Welcome to the Couples in Step blog. My name is Irene Oudyk-Suk. I am the Couples In Step therapist. I blog about relationships: communication problems, sexual issues, infidelity, cross-cultural challenges, angry or distant interactive styles, conflict, and more. I welcome feedback.
Looking for articles on a specific topic? See the categories search box in the right side bar (or scroll down if you’re on a smart phone).
Far too many people imagine a responsive lover is someone who reacts well to sexual stimuli or their partner’s sexual desire. While responsive is defined as “reacting to suggestions, influences, appeals, or efforts”, a responsive lover isn’t someone who merely…
Talking during sex is a nice way to nurture sexual intimacy in a relationship. But bedroom conversation is uncomfortable for many. A post on the Gottoman Institute Relationship Blog a few years ago, (the post isn’t there any longer) told of a…
Want to grow your practice? Interested in growing your therapy skills? Consider couples therapy as a specialty and train in Emotionally Focused Therapy. The way to becoming an EFT therapist is through ICEEFT, the umbrella organization for EFT therapy in North America. The…
AshleyMadison.com is an online dating site that invites people in committed relationships to “have an affair, life is short.” Last August the website’s database was leaked, exposing 30 million customers’ personal information. For a few weeks the internet was rife…
Successful cross-cultural couples are curious about their partner’s culture. They don’t presume their partner shares their assumptions about how things should be in a relationship. They delight in exploring their differences, and this helps them steer their way through many differences and misunderstandings.
But partners in a healthy cross-cultural […]
Is internet porn adversely affecting someone you know? The airwaves in both the US and Canada have been giving this topic a good amount of “fear-mongering” attention of late. So perhaps it comes as no surprise that “The Highs and…
So, you’re a committed couple. Congratulations! You live together. Great! But you’re talking about sleeping in separate beds. And you’re worried this will bode poorly for your relationship. Competing studies about this very issue come to different conclusions. A Wall…
“It’s the biological clock, you know. I only have three years left. After that I’ll have trouble getting pregnant,” says a 32-year-old woman in my office for the first time. Her eyes say, “help!” Her partner jumps right in. “That’s…
Core values. Mission statements. They help define how and why an organization ticks. Here’s how Couples In Step ticks. Core Values at Couples In Step Mindlessness, not malice, is responsible for your problems. Neither of you intended for your relationship…
Here’s a bit of my journey to becoming an EFT couples therapist. September, 2006 saw me heading to Ottawa to attend a couple’s therapist training. I am a couple’s therapist so nothing unusual in that. I was distracted though, that…
